May Day rallies for immigration reform

May 1, 2013, Vista, California_ USA_| About 150 grassroots organizations and community members from Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, Fallbrook, and Oceanside walk along N. Santa Fe Avenue as the came together this Wednesdayt in conmemoration of International Workers' Day.
— Don Boomer

May 1, 2013, Vista, California_ USA_| About 150 grassroots organizations and community members from Escondido, San Marcos, Vista, Fallbrook, and Oceanside walk along N. Santa Fe Avenue as the came together this Wednesdayt in conmemoration of International Workers' Day.
— Don Boomer

“Taksim is our sacred venue. Open it up to the workers!” demanded Kani Beko, leader of a major labor union confederation.

Boos and whistles from protesters forced Danish Prime Minister Thorning-Schmidt to halt her May Day speech to thousands at the gathering in Aarhus, some 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Copenhagen. Some believe that she has been leaning too far to the right to uphold the goals of her leftist Social Democratic Party. As she was walking to her car, a man squirted her with a water pistol. Police spokesman Carsten Dahl said police had detained the 23-year-old man, but the premier was not injured.

Swedish police said seven people were arrested and five were injured as counter-demonstrators tried to interrupt a May Day parade by right-wing extremists in the southern city of Jonkoping. Police spokesman Goran Gunnarsson said 60 others were briefly detained as officers tried to keep the two sides apart.

In Indonesia, the world’s fourth-most populous country, tens of thousands of workers rallied for higher pay and other demands. Some also carried banners reading: “Sentence corruptors to death and seize their properties” to protest a proposal for the government to slash fuel subsidies that have kept the country’s pump prices among the cheapest in the region.

In the Philippines, an estimated 8,000 workers marched in Manila to also demand better pay and regular jobs instead of contractual work. Some rallied outside the U.S. Embassy, torching a wooden painting stamped with the words “low wages” and “union busting” that depicted Philippine President Benigno Aquino III as a lackey of President Barack Obama.

More than 10,000 Taiwanese protested a government plan to cut pension payouts to solve worsening fiscal problems, saying it reflects a government policy to bolster economic growth at the expense of workers’ benefits. Analysts say poor income levels have forced many young Taiwanese to share housing with their parents and delay marriages.

And in Cambodia, more than 5,000 garment workers marched in Phnom Penh, demanding better working conditions and a salary increase from $80 to $150 a month. About a half million people work in the country’s $4.6 billion garment industry, which makes brand name clothes for many U.S. and European retailers.

In Mexico, public school teachers who have blocked highways and battled police in recent months marched peacefully Wednesday in Mexico City and the southern city of Chilpancingo, hoping to block an education reform law that introduces teacher evaluations and diminishes the power of unions in hiring decisions.

“Not here, not there, the reform shall not pass anywhere!” the marchers chanted.

In his May 1 speech, President Enrique Pena Nieto promised new effort to produce more salaried jobs, noting that two-thirds of Mexicans have no benefits and low wages.

In Havana, tens of thousands of Cubans joined the communist nation’s traditional May Day march in the Plaza of the Revolution. This year’s edition was dedicated to Cuba’s ally, the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Cuban President Raul Castro attended the event, but did not speak.